Improved fruit-box



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICEo EDMUND MORRIS, OF BURLINGTON, NEV JERSEY.

lMgPRovi-:D FRUIT-Box.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 45,848, dated January l0, 1865.

To LZZ wlw/71, it nrc/,y concern.-

Be it known that I, EDMUND MORRIS, of the city and county of Burlington, in the State of New Jersey, have invented a new and Inr proved Mode of Making Fruit Boxes, by which they can be quickly put together without the use of nails or glue, and costing so little that the boxes containing strawberries, raspberries,blackberries, Ste., may go with the fruit. The following is a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

I take a thin veneer of any suitable kind of wood, pasteboard, or other available material, and by means of a punch of proper size cut out at one blow a strip long enough to form the four sides of the intended box, with a tongue at one end, as shown in Fig. l. By the same blow the strip is scored or cut across at A A A A, about a third way through, at such distances between the scorings that when the strip is bent up a joint 0r angle is formed at each scoring, thus producing the complete shell of a box. The tongue is then pushed into the slots B Oby inserting it first in B, then passing it under the space between the slots, and coming up through O, thus buckling the four sides together. At each of the points D D there are two parallel slots, with a narrow strip left between each two. As the shell is folded up and buckled, these slots fall on opposite sides of the shell. The bottom, Fig. 2, is punched out with two spurs, E E. At the dotted lines a score or eut is made by the same blow, whereby the spurs can be turned up at right angles. They are then buckled into the ing in opposite directions, keeps the bottom in its place, at the same time holding the shell together, and dispensing with the use of tacks or glue.

Fig. 3 representsa complete box. This box can be made and sold so cheaply that the grower can afford to let it go with the fruit. A hundred pints will weigh five pounds, while a .hundred of the kind generally used weigh thirty-one pounds, thus securing a large saving of freight in sending to market. The great and heretofore unattainable desideratum of uniform cleanliness is secured to the consumer, while the lower layer of fruit in a chest or crate is kept from injury by the bottom of the box being slightly raised, and the lower edge of each box being supported on the upper edge of that underneath.

The two pieces which compose the box,made all ready to bend up and put together, can be forwarded in plats to fruit growers living many miles from the factory, and may be formed into boxes during leisure times by children. Thus sent as flats many thous-` ands can be crowded into a small compass, thus saving freight as well as the high 'cost of packing inseparable from sending boxes al= ready made up.

I claim* The above-described method of construct; ing fruit-boxes without the use of nails or' glue, whether made of wood or other material, and of whatever shape.

EDMUND MORRIS.I

Witnesses:

J. L. POWELL, M. F. HYDE. 

